Cannabis stocks were trading mostly up Wednesday morning after Piper Jaffray started coverage of the group.

What Happened

Piper Jaffray's Michael Lavery said in his initiation note that the cannabis industry is in its early stages, with "much to learn," according to CNBC.

The long-term growth opportunities are "significant" as the global cannabis market benefits from a transition from illicit trade to legal sales, along with usage in the medical space, in the analyst's view.

Why It's Important

The legalization of cannabis for recreational use in Canada, coupled with the medical market in Europe and CBD-infused products in the U.S. created a $15 to $50-billion market, Lavery said. The global cannabis market has the long-term potential to increase tenfold to $250 billion to $500 billion in size, he said.

The cannabis sector is also attractive to investors as governments worldwide are drawn to the drug as a new source of tax revenue, the analyst said.

What's Next

Legalization of cannabis in the U.S. could be a hot topic ahead of the 2020 presidential election, according to Piper Jaffray. Encouragingly, both Democrats and Republicans "could conceivably co-opt the issue" of legalization, which would likely create new inflows of capital and the potential for M&A activity, the sell-side firm said.